Miriam Toews Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Miriam Toews is a popular Canadian author, who has written several widely successful standalone novels. She is particularly popular for writing the All My Puny Sorrows, A Complicated Kindness, Irma Voth, etc. Miriam has won many literary prizes for her work, including the Findley Award and the Governor General’s Award. She has also been the finalist for Scotiabank Giller Award on two occasions. Besides writing, Miriam has also acted in a movie called Silent Light. Her role in the movie was a very important one and praised by many. It was one of the factors that helped the Carlos Reygadas film win the Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival in 2007. Miriam has said her experience of working in the film enabled her to write her book called Irma Voth.

Author Miriam was born in 1964 in Steinbach, Manitoba. She was raised in her hometown by her Mennonite parents, who belonged to Kleine Gemeinde. Miriam is related to the first setters of Steinbach as a direct descendant through her dad, Melvin Toews. The first settlers, Klaas Reimer, had come to Manitoba from Ukraine in 1974. Miriam’s mother, Elvira Loewen, is C.T. Loewen’s daughter, who was the founder of Loewen Windows lumber business and a respected entrepreneur. During her teenage, Miriam was involved in the activities of horse riding. She used to take part in provincial barrel-racing and dressage competitions. At the age of 18, she moved out to Steinbach and lived in London and Montreal before going on to settle in Winnipeg. Miriam has earned a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies from the Manitoba University and another bachelor’s degree in journalism from the King’s College University in Halifax. Miriam attempted to write her first novel in 1996 while she was employed as a freelance journalist and named it as Summer of My Amazing Luck. The Turnstone Press published this book. It is an exploration of the evolving friendship of a couple of single mothers residing in a public housing complex in Winnipeg. Miriam developed this story while she was working on preparing a documentary for the CBC Radio on the topic of welfare mothers. This novel was shortlisted for the McNally Robinson Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal.

Miriam went on to win the McNally Robinson prize with her 1998 book, A Boy of Good Breeding. Miriam has written for a number of literary magazines like The Guardian, Intelligent Life, Wire Tap, Saturday Night, New York Times Magazine, Geist, Canadian Geographic, etc. In 1999, she was awarded the National Magazine Prize for Humor. Miriam has written The X Letters, which includes some personal dispatches written for her son’s father. The letters were featured on one of the episodes of This American Life that was based on missing parents. Miriam’s father committed suicide in 1998. His tragic death inspired her to write a memoir in the voice of her father. The memoir was received very well and declared a classic in modern literature based on mental illness. Miriam later revealed that her father was a patient of bipolar disorder for a large part of his life. However, the disorder didn’t have a huge impact on his life as he was considered a well-respected and active school teacher. Miriam’s father was also involved in the setting up of the first public library in Steinbach. In 2010, Miriam’s elder sister named Marjorie also committed suicide on the day after her father had killed himself. Miriam likes to give the credit for her success as a writer to her fans, who have supported her throughout her career. She hopes to keep writing many more exciting novels and stories in the future.

A mind-blowing book written by author Miriam Toews is entitled ‘The Flying Troutmans’. It was published by the Knopf Canada publication in 2008. The book contains the main characters as Hattie, Thebes, Logan, Marc, and Minerva. Miriam has done the story’s setting in American. The novel begins by showing that Hattie’s boyfriend Marc leaves her in Paris to move to an ashram. She learns that her sister Minerva has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. As her nephew and niece, Logan and Thebes, are alone at home, Hattie flies back to home in Winnipeg to look after them. As Hattie doesn’t know what to do next, she takes the kids and sets off on a trip in her van to look for the long lost father of the children, Cherkis. As no one has any idea about the location of Cherkis, the journey becomes more important as against the destination.

During their eventful and wayward journey to North Dakota and the regions beyond, Hattie, Thebes, and Logan stay at scary hotels, come across helpful hippies, and attempt to find ways of ignoring the threatening noises rising from under their van’s hood. Thebes spends time by making novelty cheques with the crafts and art supplies kept in the van. She doesn’t wash her hair no matter how much Hattie scolds her. Logan keeps carving scary phrases on the van’s dashboard. He disappears repeatedly at night for playing basketball. Logan tells Hattie that he is falling in love with a columnist named Deborah Solomon. In the middle of all this mess, Hattie is not able to reach Minerva at the psychiatric hospital. She becomes so fed up that she calls Marc multiple times for help. In this book, Miriam has described a humorous story of escaping from a crisis and landing in chaos. She has mentioned engaging characters and has provided richly funny details, all of which were highly appreciated by the readers.

Another entertaining book penned by Miriam is known as ‘Irma Voth’. It was released in 2011 under the banner of Knopf Canada publishers. The book revolves around the life of Irma Voth and is set in Mexico’s Mennonite community. At the book’s start, Irma is introduced as a 19-year-old girl living in the rural community of Mennonite. She marries a Mexican man out of her community and gets discarded by her family because of her action. Even though Irma is not allowed to meet her family members, she maintains contact with her younger sister. She curses herself for taking marrying in a hurry and yearns for the lost love of her mother. Irma finds herself stuck in a desperate situation as her husband often remains absent and she fears the punishing nature of her father. Later, a filmmaking crew arrives in the community for making a film and Irma gets hired by them for translation work. This too is not acceptable to her father, who attempts to cause problems in the making of the film and destroy the equipment. As a result, Irma decides to move out of everyone’s life and start a new life away from her difficult past.